Good morning, friends.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 11:21, “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.”
There’s a good chance that you’re one of the millions who track the number of steps you take in a single day. And if so, you are all too familiar with the number 10,000. But that threshold, which gets consistently promoted as the target for the amount of steps we should take daily to improve our health and lower certain risks, has an interesting background. Apparently the number did not reveal itself as the result of years of research and testing. On the contrary, a Japanese professor of health invented a pedometer in 1965 and called it Manpo-kei, which means 10,000-step meter. He believed walking that many steps would help the Japanese people avoid obesity, and his marketing campaign declared, “Let’s walk 10,000 steps a day!” And just like that, an industry standard was born. Since then, plenty of research has been done regarding walking and how many steps should be taken, and it turns out that 10,000 may or may not be the right number for you, depending on your condition and situation. But how many times in a day do you change directions? I remember a line from a tv show where an auto mechanic claimed that 51% of all turns are right hand turns, which should be close, lest we all spend our day going in circles.
But in a less literal sense, how often do you turn one way or the other? While taking those 10,000 steps, you make subtle swerves, turn to go left or right, and do full-blown U-turns. But in the course of your day, what turns you one direction or the other where Christ is concerned? What directs you toward Him, and what gets in the way to cause you to turn otherwise? Your routine is such that you probably know when those decision times will occur. And you already have in place opportunities to draw close, regardless of whether you take advantage of them or not. For certainty, no matter the schedule that awaits you, the best use of your time will be to turn to the Lord. You probably don’t have a way to track how often it occurs, so just go ahead and let it be every time. That’s a goal that’s been proven to be ideal for followers of Jesus.
As we seek Him today, turn to Jesus before, during, and after you take your steps.
Have a wonderful weekend.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
